On Wed 27.1.2016, the ATO issued Class Ruling CR 2016/6 (the Swinburne University Academic Staff Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme 2015-16). The Class Ruling provides that the Swinburne University Academic Staff Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme 2015-16 is an early retirement scheme for the purposes of s 83-180 of the ITAA 1997. It applies from Wed 27.1.2016 to…
On 20 January 2016, the ATO put the following advice on it’s website about LAPS 3687. Publication of the LAPS has been put ‘on hold’ due to the Federal Court’s decision on the Chevron case dated 23 Oct 2015. The court rejected the Commissioner’s view that tax treaties can be relied on, independently of the…
There have been significant changes to Part IVA since the original PS LA 2005/24 was drafted. The PS LA is being updated to reflect relevant court decisions and provide guidance on the amended legislation. The publication of PS LA 2005/24 is temporarily on-hold to allow for additional external consultation to take place. Refer to Matters…
[The ATO states, on its website] We conduct transfer-pricing reviews as part of broader risk reviews of businesses under our compliance program. Documenting your transfer pricing: is important for demonstrating your compliance with Australia’s transfer pricing rules can be costly, particularly for smaller businesses. The ATO have developed some simplified transfer pricing record keeping options…
This measure is now proposed to apply to look-through ‘‘Earn-out’’ rights created on or after 24 April 2015. ‘‘Earn-out’’ rights created before this date should consider the treatment described in scenario 1 below. For all other taxpayers, the treatment described in scenario 2 and 3 below should be considered. ‘Earn-out’ rights created between 11 May 2010 and 23…
On 18 January 2016, the ATO published the following on its website. ‘Recent changes to the law requires us to publish income tax information for Australian-owned resident private companies who report a total income of $200 million or more. Reporting will start for the 2013–14 financial year onwards. We recently wrote to affected companies, and…
From 1 July 2015, car expense deductions for individuals were simplified. If you have clients who pay their employees a car allowance, remind them they need to withhold tax on the amount they pay over 66c per kilometre. If they haven’t been doing this, they should start now to avoid their employees having a tax…
On 18 January 2016, the ATO posted this on their website. The ATO is working with insurance providers to identify policy owners on a wider range of asset classes. These include: marine; aviation; enthusiast motor vehicles; fine art and thoroughbred horses. This will provide the ATO with a more accurate estimate of taxpayers’ wealth, help…
On 21 January 2016, the ATO advised the Dispute Resolution Working Group members of the results of the ‘reinvention’ of the Test Case Litigation Program. It said, that in the last 12 months they have: Reduced our test case funding criteria from three criteria and 9 guiding principles to 1 criterion and 5 expectations Introduced…
On 22 January 2016, the Commissioner of Taxation (as the Registrar of the Australian Business Register or ABR) announced he will begin cancelling the ABNs of approximately 220,000 trusts, where there is evidence they are no longer carrying on an enterprise. Trust ABNs will be cancelled in February, where information available indicates that for the…